A typical computer user may interact with many distinct online resources, such as Web sites or other network-accessible information and/or service providers. These online resources typically provide access to various services, such as shopping, banking, travel, news, etc. In order to better manage the user experience, many online resources will require a user to establish a user account that includes personal information about the user, such as name, shipping address, billing address, billing information, etc. A number of approaches exist for the management of personal information. Each approach suffers drawbacks, especially when coping with personal information that changes over time.
In one approach, personal information used for a particular online resource is managed by the online resource itself. In this approach, the personal information for a particular user is stored by the online resource in a user account that may be protected by a username and/or password. Generally, the user can access and update the personal information by providing the appropriate username and password. The principal drawback with this approach to the management of personal information is that it does not scale well. In particular, the number of user accounts increases with the number of online resources utilized by the user. And, as the number of user accounts increases, so does the corresponding effort required for the user to manage them. For example, when the user's physical address changes (e.g., because the user has moved to a different residence, the user must visit multiple online resources and update his personal information in multiple separate user accounts. In addition, each online resource will typically provide a different user interface for accessing and updating personal information, thereby further making the process time consuming and frustrating for the user.
In another approach, personal information for a particular user is stored in a centrally accessible data repository, such as a server-based “wallet” or “passport” managed by a third party. In this approach, when an online resource requires access to personal information about a user, the online resource communicates with the third party and requests the required information. The principal drawback with this approach is that many users may be hesitant or unwilling to put some or all of their personal information in the hands of a third party. In addition, users may not have fine-grained control over what kinds of personal information are released to a particular online resource, because the user may not be involved with, or even aware of, the transmission of personal information from the third party to the online resource.
In a third approach, personal information for a particular user is stored on the user's computing system. For example, a password manager in a Web browser or other client application may store the user names and passwords for a user, such that they can be transmitted to an online resource upon request. One drawback of this approach is that it is typically directed only to very limited types of personal information, such as user names and passwords. Other types of personal information are typically still managed by the online resources themselves, meaning that the user is still faced with many of the problems related to the first approach, described above.